Deep Throat
You may be looking for information about the episode entitled "Deep Throat". Ronald Pakula, who went by the name "Deep Throat", was a Syndicate member and mysterious informer to FBI Special Agent Fox Mulder in the early 1990s. He would often reveal the information he chose to provide in a cryptic manner. (TXF: "Deep Throat", et al.) His real name may have been "Ronald". (TXF: "Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man") It was later revealed that his real name is Ronald Pakula. (TXF: This) :The Cigarette Smoking Man refers to him as "Ronald" once in "Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man", an episode that presents a depiction of events that might or might not have happened and, for any events that did happen, may have been different to how they are depicted. History Early Work Deep Throat once told Fox Mulder that he had been serving as a CIA operative during the Vietnam War when he shot and killed the alien occupant of a UFO shot down by the Marines after it had been sighted for five nights over Hanoi. According to Deep Throat's claim, he had consequently gained the distinction of being one of three men to have exterminated an E.B.E. in compliance with the E.B.E. Extermination Policy, but the alien's blank and innocent expression moments before its death had continued to haunt him. (TXF: "E.B.E.") :In reality, the Vietnam War was fought between 1965 and 1973, but this fact has never been established in ''The X-Files.'' in the early 1970s.]] In or before 1973, Deep Throat became a member of the Syndicate and worked with the "Cigarette Smoking Man", William Mulder, Victor Klemper, the "First Elder", the "Third Elder" and the "Well-Manicured Man". In 1972 or '73, Deep Throat posed for a photograph with his colleagues outside the Strughold Mining Company in West Virginia. (TXF: "Paper Clip") According to unconfirmed evidence later amassed by Melvin Frohike, Deep Throat called the Cigarette-Smoking Man on the night of December 24, 1991 with news that a UFO had been recovered. In a discussion between the two men later that night, Deep Throat apparently revealed that the UFO matched the dimensions of the vehicle spotted over Hanoi when he had been working for the CIA in Vietnam. According to Frohike's evidence, Deep Throat mentioned that the marines hadn't been able to shoot down the UFO, contradicting the story he would later tell Fox Mulder. Supposedly, Deep Throat also expressed concern over possible international interest regarding the recent UFO recovery and, even though the Cigarette-Smoking Man wanted to study the E.B.E. alive, Deep Throat insisted that the alien entity, which was already in critical condition, be killed, citing Security Council Resolution 1013. Deep Throat, rather than the Cigarette Smoking Man, was randomly selected to shoot the extraterrestrial and he did so, despite the fact that it would have helped William Mulder's project. (TXF: "Musings of a Cigarette-Smoking Man") Helping Mulder Between 1992 and 1994, Deep Throat provided Mulder with information regarding the X-files that he was investigating. (TXF: "Deep Throat", "Ghost in the Machine", "Fallen Angel", "Eve", "Young at Heart", "E.B.E.", "The Erlenmeyer Flask") First Encounters with Mulder in the mirror of a Washington, D.C. public washroom.]] Moments prior to first meeting Mulder, Deep Throat slyly observed him in a Washington bar as the FBI agent briefly told his partner, Special Agent Dana Scully, about a case involving the disappearance of a colonel named Robert Budahas near Ellens Air Base, in Idaho. When Mulder left Scully to use the restroom, Deep Throat followed and entered as Mulder was washing his face. Although Deep Throat refused to answer several questions about his identity, he strongly advised Mulder not to pursue the case in Idaho, claiming that the military would not tolerate an FBI investigation. He also offered his assistance to Mulder, revealing that he was in a position to know a lot about the American government and had been keeping an interest in Mulder's work on the X-files. Deep Throat quickly left the restroom, causing Mulder to lose sight of him while attempting to follow the mysterious man out of the room to the bar outside. Mulder disregarded Deep Throat's warning and, shortly after seeing a UFO while later intruding on Ellens Air Base, he was captured by the military, only to be freed due to Scully negotiating for his release but his memory of the incident had apparently been erased. Deep Throat learned that the agents had been witness to things they had not been meant to see. life.]] Following their return to Washington, Deep Throat slowly approached Mulder while the FBI agent was running round a sports track and met with him in the middle of the field. Deep Throat admitted that the agents' lives might still be in jeopardy due to their experiences in Idaho and agreed to provide Mulder with information, only so long as it was in his own best interest – namely, "the truth" – to do so. Although he was not forthcoming about the nature of the craft Mulder had recently seen and soon began to walk away, Deep Throat turned back to answer the FBI agent's question on whether aliens were indeed on Earth, admitting that they had already been there for a very long time. (TXF: "Deep Throat") Providing Information on Brad Wilczek When Deep Throat met with Mulder again, he did so against his better judgement, irritated that Mulder had not respected the terms of their arrangement. They again met outside in the light of day, but walked as they spoke. Deep Throat provided information to Mulder about the Department of Defense's interest in computer programmer Brad Wilczek, who had recently become the subject of a Code 5 investigation. Following Wilczek's disappearance, Deep Throat met with Mulder again outside in the day, but this time on a park bench. Even though Mulder had tried to find Wilczek through various political sources, Deep Throat claimed that the group who had taken the computer programmer without explanation were capable of doing anything they wanted and that Wilczek was in the middle of negotiations to reclaim his freedom, because he was being held accountable for two murders committed by a Central Operating System he had designed. Deep Throat confirmed to Mulder that the Department of Defense had not managed to revive the computer system, which had been destroyed by a virus introduced to its programming by Mulder. (TXF: "Ghost in the Machine") UFO Recovery and FBI Jurisdiction On a later encounter, Deep Throat told Mulder that a UFO had crashed on the previous night and that a quick-response craft retrieval unit had been deployed. Deep Throat was aware that the unit's leader, Colonel Calvin Henderson, had, in the Cold War, been assigned the task of preventing technologies from downed US aircrafts from being obtained by those working for the Soviet Republic. Mulder traveled to the area being sanitized but he was again captured by the military and FBI Section Chief Joseph McGrath consequently ordered a full inquiry with a recommendation that the X-files be shut down. Even though Mulder attended a hearing adjudicated by McGrath after his release, Deep Throat countermanded McGrath's decision, much to the Section Chief's frustration. Section Chief Joseph McGrath.]] Deep Throat later went to a courtyard outside an office building, where he waited for McGrath, and the Section Chief soon joined him there. Deep Throat agreed with McGrath's assessment that Mulder's conduct had been in clear violation of both federal law and FBI procedure but stated that the agent's occasional insubordination was ultimately far less dangerous than having him expose his knowledge or, as Deep Throat mockingly suggested, "what he thinks he knows," to the wrong people. Deep Throat told the Section Chief, "Always keep your friends close, Mr. McGrath, but keep your enemies closer," before he walked away. (TXF: "Fallen Angel") Lichfield Experiments One night shortly thereafter, Deep Throat hid from Mulder behind bushes at a pier. He was anxious that Scully may have followed her FBI partner to the pier but, after he announced his presence while Mulder was walking past the bushes, the FBI agent put his fears to rest and he stepped out into the open. As they wandered along a path, Deep Throat joked that he was in the area because he was hoping they could watch a Warriors game. He soon began to reveal information relating to the top secret Lichfield Experiments, a project that was tasked with creating the superior soldier and involved a group of genetically controlled children. According to Deep Throat, the project had existed during the height of the Cold War. Deep Throat subsequently organized for Mulder and Scully to interview Eve 6, a woman who had been one of the children involved in the Lichfield Experiments. (TXF: "Eve") Revelations About John Barnett After Mulder became aware that reportedly deceased killer John Barnett was still alive and continuing to murder, Deep Throat met with him one night in Gertie's Bar. Deep Throat admitted that the US government had known that Barnett was in the country and that the government was now bargaining with the criminal to buy the advanced research of Dr. Joe Ridley from him, research that Barnett had stolen. Even though he had earlier announced his frustration at the way in which the situation had been handled and although he had arrived at the bar after Mulder, Deep Throat seemed to support the government's attempt at negotiating with Barnett, much to Mulder's disapproval, and he stayed behind after Mulder left, to consume a drink the FBI agent had bought for him prior to his arrival. (TXF: "Young at Heart") Revealing the Conspiracy and Assassination Deep Throat used a mixture of truths and expertly constructed lies to try to throw Mulder and Scully off the scent of an E.B.E. which was being transported across the US in an unmarked truck. He claimed he was doing this to protect Mulder and the rest of the world from the truth. (TXF: "E.B.E.") :This incident is the first known instance in which Deep Throat lies to Mulder. In early 1994, Deep Throat alerted Mulder to a major security leak within the Purity Control project. Due in part to this leak and also to Mulder and Scully's subsequent intervention, a massive cover-up was initiated. Mulder intercepted and attempted to protect Doctor William Secare and was taken prisoner by Men In Black. Deep Throat and Scully hatched a plan to steal a DNA sample from the project and use it to trade for Mulder's release. Because of Deep Throat's shadowy existence, it was easy to dispose of him in retribution for his meddling involvement in this top secret cover-up; he was shot in the chest by "Crew Cut Man" and died on the road beside an unconscious but alive Mulder. As he lay dying in Scully's arms, his last words were, "Trust no one." (TXF: "The Erlenmeyer Flask") Legacy Remembering Deep Throat In Arlington in late 1994, a funeral was held in Deep Throat's memory. Mulder, now no longer assigned to the X-files as they were closed down, watched Deep Throat's funeral from the distance of a thousand yards, using eight-power binoculars. Despite the termination of the X-files, Mulder and Scully still secretly kept in contact and, upon one covert meeting, Scully commented to Mulder that he had looked like Deep Throat while she had distantly been watching him approach from the shadows. While pondering the possibilities of alien contact after having been sent to Arecibo Ionospheric Observatory in Puerto Rico, Mulder made a recording of his voice in which he also noted that Deep Throat's advice to "trust no-one" was difficult because he believed that continually suspecting everyone and everything wore a person down, to the extent that they even began to doubt what they knew to be the truth. A slowed-down version of the section of Mulder's recording in which he mentioned Deep Throat was apparently replayed several times while suddenly occurring strange phenomena caused Mulder to believe that aliens were nearby. (TXF: "Little Green Men") Mulder and Scully visit his grave in Arlington, Virginia. It is revealed that his true name is "Ronald Pakula". (TXF: "This") Succession by X and Revenge Deep Throat's role as Mulder's informer was succeeded by "X", who was loyal to his predecessor and left evidence pertaining to the death of Dr. Saul Grissom outside Mulder's apartment door. (TXF: "Soft Light", "Sleepless") When Assistant Director Walter Skinner asked Mulder where he had obtained the evidence, the FBI agent answered with implied uncertainty by noting that the only source he had ever trusted, referring to Deep Throat, was now dead. (TXF: "Sleepless") In search of assistance, Mulder met with X shortly after Scully was abducted; though X claimed that the situation was hopeless, Mulder argued that X's predecessor could have helped him but X replied that the matter of Scully's disappearance reached beyond all of them, even his own predecessor. (TXF: "Ascension") Once the X-files were reopened and Scully had been returned, she and Mulder tracked down Crew Cut Man and Deep Throat's execution was avenged in late 1994. (TXF: "Red Museum") During a meeting with Mulder in early 1995, X explained that, despite his loyalty to his predecessor, he had never made any promises to Mulder, who was frustrated with X for recent actions that included unintentionally allowing the release of dangerous scientist Chester Ray Banton. (TXF: "Soft Light") Illusory Versions While Mulder was unconscious and on the verge of death in April 1995, he hallucinated that several people whom he had known before they had died were surrounding his body and visiting him, including his father and Deep Throat. The hallucinatory version of Deep Throat told him; :"I was first struck by the absence of time, having depended on it so completely as a measure of myself and my life. Moving backwards into the perpetual night that consumes purpose and deed, all passion and will. I come to you, old friend, with the dull clarity of the dead not to beckon you but to feel the fire and intensity that still live in you... and the heavy weight of your burdens which I had once borne. There is truth here, old friend, if that's all you seek but there's no justice or judgment without which truth is a vast, dead hollow. Go back. Do not look into the abyss or let the abyss look into you. Awaken the sleep of reason and fight the monsters within and without." Mulder was ultimately nursed back to health by local Navajo healer Albert Hosteen. (TXF: "The Blessing Way") In the summer of 1996, Jeremiah Smith momentarily assumed Deep Throat's appearance while being interrogated by the Cigarette-Smoking Man, greatly unnerving the assassin. (TXF: "Talitha Cumi") In October 1999, after Mulder temporarily developed extraordinary mental abilities following exposure to an alien artifact, he dreamt that Deep Throat was still alive and was living in the same neighborhood as the Cigarette Smoking Man secretly took Mulder to live. This illusory version of Deep Throat was in the kitchen of Mulder's new home when Mulder arrived there. Mulder was extremely relieved and slightly disbelieving to apparently see Deep Throat alive again and the two men embraced in a friendly hug. The dreamt Deep Throat explained that his supposed death was the result of a well-placed bullet, revealing a small wound that appeared to have long been healed and commenting, "A punctuation mark in a man's life and you get to start a whole new chapter." Deep Throat attempted to persuade Mulder to let go of his guilt regarding issues Mulder believed had been caused by his own quest, including Deep Throat's death. Seemingly happy and having mentioned that he was extremely relaxed but had some minor tennis elbow, Deep Throat showed a picture of his wife and daughters to Mulder and invited him to visit them for dinner. In the same dream, Mulder later imagined that he had grown much older, convinced by the Cigarette Smoking Man that he was dying and that many of the people he had been close to in his life – including Deep Throat – were now also dead. (TXF: "The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati") Background Information The Deep Throat character was based on the infamous Watergate informer of the same name. Writer and creator Chris Carter also claimed to have been inspired by Donald Sutherland's portrayal of "Mr. X" in the Oliver Stone movie JFK. According to Carter, he intended the character to be someone who comes from a mysterious, shadowy government, of which the public has no knowledge, and selectively helps Mulder and Scully when they reach a dead end or mistakenly follow the wrong lead in an investigation, without giving them too many answers. Somewhat surprisingly, the character's historic pseudonym is never mentioned on-screen until his final bona fide appearance in "The Erlenmeyer Flask", the Season 1 finale. In the original shooting script of "Deep Throat", the character is described as being in his fifties. In the scenes set in the Washington, D.C. bar, he is referenced only as "a man" but, as he approaches Mulder on the field in the episode's final scene, the character is once referred to as "a lone figure" before it is said that he is "now and forever to be known as Deep Throat." The script continues to refer to him as such, while also acknowledging the fact that he is a man. Actor Jerry Hardin was intrigued to play the role of Deep Throat. "The mystery of a character who has unlimited sources of information, but also has enemies, makes for interesting acting work," he mused. "Since he wasn't clearly defined by the writers, I had a chance to pursue the role freely. That's interesting to do, because he could be a bad guy just as easily as a good guy." (X-Files Confidential, p. 34) Deep Throat built up a strong cult following over the time he intermittently appeared in the first season. Despite this and the fact he enjoyed Jerry Hardin's portrayal of the character, Chris Carter made the decision to conclude his run on the series. By way of explanation, Carter stated, "The character had provided information in a very systematic and predictable way, and I was interested in exploring new ways of Mulder getting his information." Hardin himself revealed, "I was pushing to make the character a regular. I think they felt they needed to accede to my desires or get rid of me. So they decided to get rid of me." (X-Files Confidential, p. 34) After viewers were shocked by Deep Throat's death at the end of the first season, Jerry Hardin was left with the impression that many people "connected strongly with that character." ( , p. 94) Hardin used the phrase "Trust no one" while signing autographs for fans in Glasgow. "I signed a bunch of young chicks' backs and arms and necks with, 'Trust no one, Jerry Hardin, " he remembered. (The Complete X-Files: Behind the Series, the Myths and the Movies, p. 53) Appearances Apocrypha Deep Throat appears in none of the issues from Topps Comics' series of The X-Files comics but is referenced, once only, in "Not to be Opened Until X-Mas", the first installment of the series. In that story, Mulder mentions Deep Throat upon discovering that a recently deceased, anonymous victim was actually a Lieutenant Greg East and that the only unclassified records about him state that he worked for NSA and CIA at different points in his career. Mulder laments, "A shame Deep Throat is gone – this was his area of expertise." In WildStorm Comics' series of The X-Files comics, Deep Throat neither appeared nor was mentioned. Trivia * "Deep Throat" is an allusion to the source used by Washington Post reporters Carl Woodward and Bob Woodward to crack open the Watergate Scandal which affected the American presidency of Richard Nixon in the early 1970s. * The name assigned to the source "Deep Throat" itself was derived from a pornographic film quite popular from that era. * The true identity of "Deep Throat", was self-disclosed by Mark Felt, former FBI Associate Director in 2005, several years after the initial run of the show ended. External links Category:Informants Category:Syndicate Category:Deceased people Category:TXF characters Category:Allies